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Research Achievement Motivation of Managers and Students

Leonid Burlachuk, Nadezhda Zhiyenbayeva, Olga Tapalova*

Kiev National University named after T. Shevchenko, Kiev, Ukraine

Abstract: This article presents the results of empirical studies of the interrelation of basic constructs: the need for achievement and achievement motivation. The research, described in this article, was focused at a comparative study of mentioned constructs at groups of managers and students. The study was conducted with the help of the following psycho-diagnostic methods: test of achievement motivation study by A. Mehrabian; test “Need for achievements” by Yu. M. Orlov; self-report inventory “Big Five” by P. Howard, P. Medina and J. Howard. Obtained results indicate positive relationship between the need for achievement and achievement motivation among studied groups of managers and students.

Keywords: achievement motivation, need for achievement, students, managers, behaviour, human activities, criterion of success

Received June 06, 2015; Revised June 16, 2015; Accepted June 23, 2015

Citation: Leonid Burlachuk, Nadezhda Zhiyenbayeva, Olga Tapalova, Research Achievement Motivation of Managers and Students. American Journal of Applied Psychology, 3 (3). 67-70. January 2015. doi:10.12691/ajap-3-3-4

1. Introduction

The phenomenon of achievement motivation is one of the most important among objects studied in psychology, since study of it brings scientists closer to find an answer to the question of the motive forces of human behaviour and activity. Understanding of inner mechanisms of human activity enhances possibility of increase and use of mental resources in the most diverse spheres of personal and social functioning of the individual [1,9,10,15].

Before starting an empirical study of achievement motivation among managers and students, it was necessary to establish a measure of similarity/difference between studied groups in the parameters of key constructs - the need for achievements and achievement motivation.

In addition, it was important to identify the interrelation of these two constructs, as from a theoretical point of view a high need for achievements is not always clearly associated with achievement motivation. Achievement motivation describes the phenomenon, which represents the interaction of the need for achievements with factors of the situation [3,5,6].

From the time of emergence of researchers’ interest to the issue of achievement motivation, the structure of knowledge about this phenomenon has significantly changed. Modern ideas of achievement motivation differ from the original. With the appearance of new data, arise new questions that need to be answered [9,10].

The purpose of our research was to study achievement motivation as one of the most significant type of motivation for human activity. In addition, revealing the interrelation between need for achievements and achievement motivation of managers and students.

2. Literature Review

Numerous authors understand achievement of motivation as motivation, aimed at more effective implementation of activities, directed on achievement of a certain result that may be applied to the criterion of the success [1,4,7]. Generally, it is about achieving good results in the most important areas of human activity. Achievements motivation in work with the intellectual tasks is the most studied in psychology. The traditional theory of achievement motivation is focused on two main aspects of the issue: directly on the aspect of achievement motivation and on a competing aspect, associated with motivation of avoidance of failure [1,6,7].

Achievement motivation is a construct that describes the complex of factors that provide direction of the subject for the best performance of activities, aimed at achieving a certain result for which criterion of success could be applied.

The experience of extended failure is an external predictor of reduction of subject's expectations regarding his/her future success and has a negative effect on the resulting achievement motivation.

Attractiveness of results and belief in a positive outcome are not enough for mainstreaming the achievement motivation. Self-efficacy - belief in own abilities is required.

External and internal sources have different effects on the achievement motivation that is caused by peculiar needs of the person in self-determination and control. External sources can be effective only if the subject interiorized them.

Namely, internal sources such as sense of self-selection, satisfaction from the process of activities implementation, interest clearly affect the achievement motivation [14].

Glance on motivation as a phenomenon of realization of the need to achieve, which depends on situational factors, and is the resultant of the interaction of the need to achieve and the factors of the situation, for the first time represented by J. Atkinson, who, in his turn, based on the idea of K. Levin [8,9,11].

3. Methodology

Test-questionnaire of achievement motivation by A. Mehrabian (modification by M.Sh.Magomed-Eminov) [13].

Modification of test - questionnaire of achievement motivation by A. Mehrabian presented by M.Sh.Magomed-Eminov is a questionnaire which provides data on the prevalence of one of the two stable generalized motives of the person - achievement motive or motive of avoiding failure.

In the approach of author achievement motivation is not seen as a bipolar system (with poles - the severity of achievement motive and the severity motive of avoiding failure). The motive of avoiding failure - is not the opposite of achievement motive: they are "equally great" and "equal rights" independent generalized motives. At the same time, according to the developer of the test, these motives are resistant. So it is the personal formations, which are little exposed to situational factors and vary significantly over the life of a person. Therefore, they can be measured, inter alia, using standard psychological questionnaires.

In our psychodiagnostics research complex the given test serve the goal of determining the severity of the two major trends in achievement motivation. Male (A) and female (B) forms of the test were used. This method measures the resulting tendency of motivation that is the degree of predominance of one of these motives - commitment to achieve success and avoiding failure. High scores on the test means that commitment to achieve success is expressed in a greater extent than the avoidance of failure, low - on the contrary.

Test-questionnaire “The need for goal achievement. The scale of assessment of need for success achievement” [5]

Methods “The need for goal achievement” [5] is used for measure need for achievement of goal, success and achievement generally. According to the author of this questionnaire, the higher person’s self-esteem, the more he/she is active and is aimed at achieving. The need for achievement is considered as personal property, installation.

Motivation of achievement expressed in an effort to improve results, persistence in achieving their goals, and influences the all human life. However, the feature of this method is that it measures exactly the need for achievement.

The given test - questionnaire was developed by Yu. M. Orlov in 1978. According to the implementer, people with high need for achievement have the following features: persistence in achieving their goals, dissatisfaction with achieved, constant desire to do something better than before, propensity keen on work, the desire to relive the pleasure of success in any case, inability to work badly, the need to invent new methods of work in the performance of the most ordinary cases, the lack of competitive spirit, a desire that others have experienced the success and achievement of results with them, dissatisfaction with easy success and unexpected easy task, a willingness to accept help and to help others in solving difficult problems to jointly experience the joy of success.

Self-report inventory “Big Five” is a method that makes it possible to get information on the major factors of personal characteristics of the subjects in order to analyse the possible relationship of these factors with different characteristics of their achievement motivation.

The developers of this psycho-diagnostic technique are P. Howard, P. Medina and J. Howard [2]. It is intended for the rapid diagnosis of the five personality factors: negative emotionality, neuroticism; extraversion; openness to experience; agreeableness; conscientiousness.

Adaptation of this method was made on the basis of the Kiev National University by professors L.F. Burlachuk and D.K. Korolev [2].

4. Discussion of the Research Outcomes

The first objective of the study was to obtain information about the link between requirements for achieving goals and achievement motivation. We share the view of the motivation as a phenomenon of the implementation of the need to achieve, depending on situational factors and are the resultant of the interaction of the need to achieve and the factors of the situation.

This view was first presented in works by J. Atkinson [1], which, in turn, was based on the idea by K. Levin [9]. Sharing the concept of “need to achieve” and “achievement motivation”, we nevertheless assumed that these are normal psychological phenomena must be linked.

We have received the following correlation between the indicators of the need for achievement (“Need to achieve the goal” questionnaire by Yu. M. Orlov) and indicators of achievement motivation (questionnaire of achievement motivation by A. Mehrabian) in managers (we used Pearson’s correlation coefficient): 0,586∗∗

In the course of empirical study of achievement motivation among representatives of mental norm, we need to, first of all solve the problem of identifying the psychological uniformity, similarity or, on the contrary, diversity, otherness of different groups within the sample of representatives of the norm. The presence of subgroups norm in the group of managers and students helped to solve this problem.

First of all, it was necessary to establish a measure of similarity / difference between the groups of students and managers on the main parameters of constructs, which is the need for progress and achievement motivation. In addition, it was important to identify the relationship between these two constructs, because from a theoretical point of view, a high need for achievement is not always clearly linked to achievement motivation. Achievement describes the phenomenon that is an interaction of the need for achievement with factors of the situation.

As a result of this interaction in conjunction with refraction factors of the situation through individual psychological characteristics of the individual, there may be different configuration ratios need for achievement and achievement motivation. We believe that these changes may significantly differ in health and mental disorders.

Therefore, the presentation of results of empirical research will start with the analysis of the ratio of the need for achievement and achievement motivation in normal.

Table 1 shows the correlation between the need for achievement (questionnaire “The need for achieving the goal” by Yu. Orlov) and indicators of achievement motivation (achievement motivation questionnaire by A. Mehrabian) in students and managers (Pearson correlation coefficient used) [5,13].

Table 1. Link between the need for achievement and achievement motivation in managers and students

As we can see, in both subgroups of the group representing conditional norm, we revealed significant positive relationship between the need for achievement and achievement motivation. In other words, the higher the subject’s current need to achieve, the more likely it is realized in achieving adequate motivation and vice versa.

This result is obvious for the group norm and generally does not require proof. However, for the check of this link is necessary for comparison of a similar link with groups of subjects, representing mental pathology.

The next question that we need to answer is a question of the homogeneity of the group of psychical norm on parameters of need for achievement and achievement motivation, that is, the basic constructs of this study.

Table 2 shows the results obtained when calculating the Mann-Whitney test for indicators of need for achievement and achievement motivation of groups of students and managers.

Table 2. Comparison of the need for achievement and achievement motivation of students and managers

Table 2 shows that there is no significant difference in the need for achievement or achievement motivation in performance between sub-groups of students and managers, although it can be assumed that the differences in age, experience, professional affiliations could affect the parameters of needs and, in particular, achievement motivation.

The group represented by managers and students, may be regarded as sufficiently homogeneous in the expression of studied key constructs. In addition, a positive relationship between needs for achievement and achievement motivation is confirmed among this group.

The results of the test “Big Five” [2] are shown in Table 3. Significant correlations between the studied parameters in the group of managers are presented in Table 3.

Table 3. Correlations of the need for achievement and achievement motivation among managers by the method of "Big Five"

As we can see from Table 3, all obtained correlations are negative. To simplify the perception of digital material we can note that it is possible to talk about qualitative positive correlation between need to achieve and achievement motivation, on the one hand, and the right side of the personality factors presented in the first column.

While making the analysis, we will correlate the data obtained on links of personal factors with achievement motivation, with the data obtained by the connection of the same factors with the need to achieve. We believe that such a review more fully presents the phenomenology of the research subject, as the need to achieve and achievement motivation are not only related to the theoretical level but we also received the confirmation of this link in a group of managers at the empirical level (r = 0,586**).

The results of correlation analysis showed the presence of negative link between indicators of achievement motivation and extraversion (-0.362*) in the group of managers. It means that managers having a high level of achievement motivation are more likely introverts than extroverts.

Further we proceed to the analysis of the results obtained in the study of relationships between need for achievement and proper motivation with the personal factors in the group of students.

Significant correlations between the studied parameters in a group of students are presented in Table 4.

Table 4. Correlations of the need for achievement and achievement motivation with the personal factors in the group of students

As is evident, a positive relationship with only one personal factor "self-control-impulsivity" (0.379 *), and the scale factor of the "lack of self-control, self-control" (0.352 *) was identified. This detected relationship relates only to the need for achievement

Student selection is obviously very diverse, especially since it includes students studying in different specialties. Accordingly, there may be various worldview attitudes, values and the corresponding personality traits. Therefore, the amounts of discovered relationships with the personal factors are minimal.

Nevertheless we can state there is a link between the need for achievement and self-control.

We remind that managers identified the opposite relationship: the need for achievement and achievement motivation are negatively associated with self-control (-0.368 and -0.424 * *, respectively); also there was a negative correlation between the figures need for achievements and the scale of this factor "lack of self-control, self-control" among managers (-0,460**).

5. Conclusion

A positive relationship between need for achievement and achievement motivation was set among representatives of managers and students, which indicates the harmonious interaction between the need for achievement and factors of social situation of this group.

Group of managers and students is relatively homogeneous on the criterion of similarity of needs for achievement and achievement motivation, however is heterogeneous in content of achievement motivation. For certain parameters, the need for achievement is associated with the opposite poles of their personal factor.

On the basis of the empirical research results the link between the need for achievement and self-control could be included to the motivational and psychological characteristics of students. At the same time managers identified the opposite relationship: the need for achievement and achievement motivation are associated with self-control negatively (r = -0,368 *, and r = -0,424 *, respectively); also there was a negative correlation between the figures need for achievements and the scale of this factor "lack of self-control, self-control" among managers (-0,460**).

Other words, the factors of age, as well as the specifics and content of the professional activities largely affect the availability and character of studied psychological dependencies.

References

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